


Moonshine

by pterawaters



Category: Stranger Things (TV 2016)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Werewolf, Fae & Fairies, First Aid, Guns, Hurt/Comfort, Multi, Pre-Relationship, Running, Sharing a Bed, Werewolf Mates
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-29
Updated: 2020-04-29
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:07:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,179
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23910553
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/pterawaters/pseuds/pterawaters
Summary: When hunters come to Hawkins, Jonathan and Nancy do everything in their power to protect their fellow werewolves, even if one of those werewolves is Steve Harrington. With the threat of silver bullets behind them and the woods full of traps, the three wolves run for the safety of the Wheeler family home. Getting there alive is the tricky part.
Relationships: Jonathan Byers/Nancy Wheeler, Jonathan Byers/Steve Harrington/Nancy Wheeler
Comments: 13
Kudos: 85





	Moonshine

**Author's Note:**

> Have 7k of werewolf AU! This was written for day 4 of [Stoncy Week 2020](https://stoncyweek2020.tumblr.com/), for the "There’s people chasing us and I pulled you into the alley with me and wow you’re close" and a little bit of the "There’s only one bed and we sleep as far away as possible from each other but wake up cuddling" prompts.

"I smell silver," Nancy whispered in Jonathan's ear, taking his hand and hurrying in the direction of the smell. It was late enough at night and Hawkins was small enough, with few enough people living in it, that the sound of footsteps moving quickly through downtown stuck out to Jonathan's sensitive ears. Her lip curling with malice, Nancy added, "And someone is running."

"Hunters," Jonathan said with a nod, making the same deductive leap he was sure Nancy had made. He took a deep breath, scenting the air. "Any idea who they've got their sights on?"

Breathing again, Nancy shook her head. "They've got so much silver, Jonathan. The smell of it stings."

"Yeah, I know," Jonathan replied, watching as Nancy checked her rifle. Unfortunately, Jonathan was no good with guns, or even with the crossbow that his mother kept in the back shed. He'd have to get too close to all that silver to use the weapons he _was_ good with, his claws, putting himself at serious risk for poisoning, or even death. "Any idea how they got past Mr. Clarke's barrier?"

At the mention of the sorcerer, Nancy sighed and shook her head. "We got complacent. All of us." Then she grabbed Jonathan's hand. "C'mon. We should be able to outpace them, maybe save whoever it is they're after."

Nodding, Jonathan put his head down and ran as fast as he could, following Nancy as closely as he could. As he drew breath to supply his burning lungs, Jonathan caught a familiar scent. "Oh, shit," he whispered to Nancy as best he could while panting. "I think they might be after Steve Harrington."

"Come on," Nancy said, turning down an alley and running to the other end of it. She got there just as Steve arrived, eyes widening when he saw her. Nancy grabbed him and pushed him back toward Jonathan.

"Get in here," Jonathan hissed at both of them, waiting for them to join him in the deep shadows of the alley before he dropped one of the bottles Mr. Clarke had given him and smashed it with his boot. When a cloud of darkness rose like curtains in a circle around them, Jonathan noticed that one of Steve's arms was outside the circle. "You have to," Jonathan said as he pulled Steve closer, "get inside."

Except now all three of them were pressed close together, breathing hard with the exertion of running at top speed, breathing each other's scents. 

Jonathan had never really thought too much about Steve Harrington. He belonged to the Harrington/Hagan pack, one of the larger and more influential packs in town, while Jonathan's family was its own insignificant three-person pack. Well, technically they were a four-person pack, now that Jonathan and Nancy were mated.

Now that Steve was here with them, pressed close, his breath sweet and slightly minty, Jonathan couldn't do anything _but_ think about him. And how close he was. Never mind the fact that he wasn't wearing any clothes. Jonathan tried his best to keep looking up, but Steve's face was in that direction, and Jonathan couldn't help but notice that the stubble on his chin and cheeks was thick, like always happened after a shift.

Jonathan wasn't sure if Nancy was also having a reaction to Steve's appearance, but she pressed her face against Jonathan's shoulder, like she was trying to block out Steve's smell. Jonathan wasn't sure why Steve's scent would bother her, but he could hazard a few guesses. The most likely guess was that Steve's scent _wasn't_ a bother, at all, and she didn't want to let that fact be known. Jonathan squeezed her hand.

All three of them held their breath as the Hunters' footsteps approached and then passed them. Once the smell of silver wasn't so chokingly strong, Jonathan asked Steve in a whisper, "They hit you with Holy Water?"

"Yeah," Steve replied, looking down at himself and grimacing. He put his hands over his dick, like Jonathan and Nancy _hadn't_ already seen all of him. "Left my clothes in my backyard when I shifted."

Taking off his coat, Jonathan said, "Here," and handed it to Steve. 

He wrapped it around his waist like a towel, tying the sleeves together, and then pushed his sweaty hair out of his face when he looked up again. "Thanks."

"Any idea where those creeps came from?" Nancy asked, scenting the air again.

Steve shook his head. "I was just minding my own business, out for a run, and I triggered a trap they must have set." He lifted up his ankle, showing them a raw, red mark. "Just barely got my leg out of their silver-rope snare. If I hadn't I would've been a goner." He sighed and put one hand on each of their shoulders. "Thanks again for your help. I won't forget this."

After giving Steve a nod, Nancy said, "We can't let those hunters stay here in town." She secured her rifle on her back, gave Jonathan a kiss, and said, "Take Steve to Hopper, fill him in on what's going on."

"What are you going to do?" Jonathan asked as Nancy scented the air again, and then looked at the brick side of the building next to them. 

"I'm gonna try to pick off a few of them," she said, letting Jonathan pull her back in. 

Giving her a kiss, Jonathan said, "Be safe."

"You too." 

Nancy took a running leap and scaled the brick building, pulling herself up onto the roof.

"Wow, she's good at that," Steve said. 

Jonathan took him by the wrist and said, "Come on. Keep your nose and your ears open. There could be more of them."

"My dad is gonna be so pissed when he gets back to town," Steve muttered, staying low as he followed Jonathan back through the alley and down the street toward the police station. "Hunters? Here in Hawkins? It's crazy."

"Yeah, I know," Jonathan told him, a hitch in his step when he heard the first rifle-shot. "If we aren't safe here, we aren't safe anywhere."

"I don't get why Hunters would come after _us_. It's not like we're eating people or anything," Steve said with a scoff. Then he chuckled and elbowed Jonathan in the ribs, "Worst I ever did to a human girl was eat her out."

"Can you not?" Jonathan asked him, opening the police station door. "Hey, Flo, is he in?" Jonathan asked the woman who worked dispatch.

"'Fraid not," she replied, giving Steve a once over. "There's a lost and found in the back office."

"Sweet," Steve said, heading back where Flo pointed.

Sighing as he heard another rifle-shot, Jonathan asked, "Does he know about the hunters?"

"He knows," Flo said with a bored nod. "Sent Callahan and Powell out to meet them. Haven't heard back yet."

"Does Mr. Clarke know?"

Shaking her head, Flo shrugged. "I've been trying to get him on the phone, but no answer."

"Shit," Jonathan said, wincing when he heard more gunshots. If Nancy got hit with one of those silver bullets… Pointing at the phone, Jonathan asked Flo, "Can I call my mom?"

"Go for it, honey."

With a thankful nod, Jonathan picked up the phone and dialed the house. When his mom picked up, she said, "Hop, this had better be you!"

"Mom, it's Jonathan," he told her. "Do you know where Mr. Clarke is?"

"He went to that big meet-up with Mr. Harrington and some of the other pack leaders," Joyce replied. "Why?"

"Hunters breached the circle," Jonathan told her, nodding at Steve when he came back wearing a pair of sweatpants and an ill-fitting sweatshirt. He still wasn't wearing shoes, but Jonathan guessed those were less likely to end up in lost and found. Steve handed Jonathan his borrowed jacket. 

"I heard," Joyce said with a sigh. "Karen Wheeler called five minutes ago. She's got Will at her place. Didn't feel comfortable trying to bring him home with Hunters out there."

Glad to know at least his brother was safe, Jonathan told his mom, "They have _so much_ silver on them, mom."

Taking a sharp breath, Joyce asked, "Have they seen you? Are they hunting you?"

Sighing as he pulled his jacket back on, Jonathan said, "They didn't before Nancy started trying to shoot them."

"That girl," Joyce said with a worried chuckle. "Keep an eye on her, alright? Karen and I are trying to get a few more of the pack leaders in on a plan. If either of you get shot with a silver bullet…"

"Yeah, I know, Mom. I'll try to get her back to her parents' house. We'll be safer as a bigger pack."

"I'll meet you there," Joyce said. "I love you."

"Love you, too," Jonathan replied, before hanging up the phone. He gave Flo a smile and said, "Thanks."

"You stay safe out there, honey," Flo said, patting Jonathan's hand. For a human, she was pretty great.

"I will," Jonathan said, before he saw Steve looking at him with an expectant expression. Rolling his eyes, Jonathan amended, " _We_ will. See you later, Flo."

"Have a nice night, Jonathan."

As they left the police station, Steve asked, "Nancy gonna still be where we left her?"

"I have no idea," Jonathan told him, scenting the air, searching for her. 

"You guys are mated, huh?" Steve asked, but before Jonathan could answer, Steve pulled him flush against a wall, behind a dumpster. Two Hunters ran past, reeking of silver almost as badly as the dumpster reeked of old food. The feeling of Steve's arm across his chest, holding him against the wall was strangely comforting. 

Once the Hunters had passed, Jonathan angled his head back toward the street, leading the way closer to where he thought Nancy should be. He whispered back to Steve, "Yeah, we’re mated. Why?"

Steve shrugged and shook his head. "You've got good taste, is all. I wanted to ask her out last year, but my dad vetoed it. Said the Wheeler pack was too small." He scoffed and muttered, "Asshole."

"You always do what your dad wants you to?" Jonathan asked him, scenting the air again. They were getting close to Nancy now. Hopefully she was still okay.

Steve scoffed. "Not really. If I did, I probably wouldn't be flunking history class."

Narrowing his eyes at Steve, Jonathan asked, "Who do you have for history?"

"Mrs. Click," Steve replied.

Furrowing his brow, Jonathan said, "Mrs. Click is the easiest teacher at school. She's _literally_ an angel."

"Yeah, that's kinda the problem," Steve said, almost sheepishly. "She doesn't yell at me for not turning in my homework, so I just...don't."

Thinking Steve was maybe the weirdest werewolf Jonathan had ever met, and that included Hopper's friend, Murry Baumann, Jonathan kept his mouth shut.

By smell, Jonathan could tell that Nancy was really close, but he didn't see her, or hear her, so it was hard to pin down her location precisely. He softly whistled a call like the bird that nested outside their bedroom window. Nancy should recognize it after all of the lazy weekend mornings they'd laid in bed together, mimicking the bird to make each other smile.

As soon as he heard the return whistle, Jonathan sighed with relief. He moved in the direction of the sound, whistling again. The whistle came back much closer than before, and when Jonathan looked up, Nancy was peering over the side of the building next to him. Jonathan waved her down, and Nancy threw her leg over the side. 

Nancy climbed down carefully, but she was still two stories up when she slipped. Jonathan moved to break her fall, but Steve was already there, catching her with a, "Oh, whoa! Watch out!"

"Thanks," Nancy said, breathless as Steve set her down on her feet. When Nancy put one of her fingers in her mouth, Jonathan smelled blood.

Putting his hand on her shoulder, Jonathan asked, "Are you okay?"

Nodding, Nancy told him, "Just broke a claw. I'll be fine."

"Don't let any of your blood fall on the ground," Steve said. "My dad said some sorcerer working with the Hunters has a spell that can track you, even from a speck of blood."

"I'll be careful," Nancy assured him before asking Jonathan, "What's the plan?"

"Head to your parents' house. Your mom is trying to get together a group to go after the Hunters."

Nodding, Nancy said, "Okay. Let's get there quick. I killed three of them, and they're gonna want blood."

Jonathan put his hand in Nancy's and let her lead them to one of the deer run shortcuts through the woods separating downtown from her parents' house. Steve trailed in their wake.

A few yards into the woods, Steve said, "Watch out for traps. They've masked the smell of the silver with something…" When Jonathan looked back, he was making a face. "Some sort of prey smell. Can't quite remember…"

Jonathan understood. Sometimes memories got lost in the shift, especially if it was a forced shift, like when you were hit with Holy Water.

Jonathan never had been hit, but his mom made sure he knew everything about werewolf culture that she did. And as one of the regional Historians, she knew a lot. Honestly, Jonathan had been thinking more and more about following in her footsteps after high school and training as a Historian. He felt like it might be something he would actually be good at. 

Nancy stopped short, hissing to get Jonathan to freeze. Steve bumped into his back, solid and warm. 

“Sorry,” he whispered, before asking Nancy, “Is that a trap?”

“Yeah,” she said. “They made it smell like rabbit.”

“ _That’s_ what it was. Man, and I love rabbit, too,” Steve scoffed, then pressed past Jonathan, saying, “I can show you how to disarm it.”

“Yeah?” Nancy asked, and Jonathan saw the look of amused disbelief she gave him. “Just so you know, if you get trapped, we’re leaving you here.”

“I’m not gonna get trapped,” Steve said, sniffing around and pulling a long branch from the underbrush. “Besides, Byers is too much of a bleeding heart to leave me behind.” He looked over his shoulder and _winked_ at Jonathan, just before hefting the branch. He threw it like a javelin, arching up slightly before falling neatly onto the trap.

The snare pulled tight around the branch and a vial of holy water, almost as pungent as the silver, dumped onto it. The water soaked into the ground and Steve started moving down the trail. “Watch out for other tripwires,” he said. “These assholes are sadistic.”

Steve led the way down the path, and when he got to the trap, he said, “Fuck. I was right. There’s another trip wire on the other side. We can’t jump across.”

“Maybe _you_ can’t,” Nancy said, and Jonathan only had half a second warning before becoming Nancy’s springboard, adding some extra force to her jump by lifting the foot she put in his cupped hands. 

Nancy flipped over the trap and the tripwire on the other side, landing almost silently on the trail beyond. 

Staring after her with wide eyes, Steve whispered, “Oh, my god. That was so sexy.”

Jonathan was pretty sure he wasn’t supposed to hear that, but he _did_ , so he punched Steve in the shoulder. “Watch your mouth.”

“Hey,” Steve said, rubbing his shoulder. “I didn’t– Ow! I didn’t mean it _that_ way. It was a cool flip. You guys practice that, or…?”

“Okay, I’ve got it cut,” Nancy said, keeping her voice just high enough for them to hear. “Make sure you clear all the silver and holy water. 

“Get to the side?” Steve asked, gesturing her over. When Nancy cleared the way, Steve took two steps and then jumped, tucking into a roll when he landed and ending up on his feet.

“Now you, sweetie,” Nancy said to Jonathan, holding her arm out like he needed to be pulled across. 

Jonathan rolled his eyes and was about to jump when he heard it. “Duck!” he said to the others, dropping to the forest floor. A bullet hit the tree beside him, flecks of silver landing on his face and neck, causing pin-pricks of pain until he managed to brush them off. “Silver bullets,” he whispered to the others.

“Move, Jonathan!” Nancy hissed at him. “Come on!”

Keeping his head low, Jonathan took as much of a running leap as he could over the now-consecrated ground. On the other side, Nancy and Steve each caught one of Jonathan’s arms, and then they were moving together. Running through the forest, almost in pack formation.

“More traps?” Jonathan asked the others. 

“Not yet,” Steve told him, ducking under a low-hanging branch.

“I’m not noticing any either,” Nancy said. “We’re almost to my family’s territory. We should have a protective circle still up.”

Another bullet cracked through the forest, and Jonathan had to pull Steve down and over, crashing both of them into Nancy so Steve wouldn’t get shot. Luckily the crashing didn’t slow them down much. 

They broke through the edge of the woods and Jonathan felt it when they stepped over the protective circle, the magic crackling across his skin. Nancy’s little brother was there, waving them toward the back door of the Wheeler house. As Jonathan passed, he saw Mike put up both middle fingers in the direction of the Hunters chasing them. Then he cried out, “Eat shit, assholes!”

With a sigh, Jonathan pulled Mike into the house and closed the door. 

“Mom!” Nancy cried, heading up the stairs from the basement into the house. “Mom?”

Jonathan followed her, and Steve followed him. 

The main floor of the Wheeler house was crawling with werewolves from several different packs. He looked around for his mom, but didn’t find her. Will found him, though, grabbing him tightly before letting him go.

“Nancy!” cried Mrs. Wheeler, pulling her daughter into a hug. “Thank the moon you made it here!” 

“We almost didn’t,” Nancy said, pulling Jonathan close. Frowning at him, she touched his face, “You’ve got silver burns. Mom, do you have any of that salve in the house? Or something we can use to make sure the silver's all out?”

“Hey, I could use some too,” said Steve, lifting one of his pant legs to show the wound on his ankle. 

“Oh, dear,” Karen said, pulling a chair out from the kitchen table. Then another. “Both of you boys sit down. I'm glad I asked Claudia to stay when we got the news. I’ll have her take a look at you.”

Sighing, Jonathan sat next to Steve, taking off his coat and readjusting his left sock where it had slipped down into his boot. 

Leaning toward Jonathan, Steve asked, “Who’s Claudia? Is she hot?”

“She’s Dustin’s mom,” Jonathan told him with a sour frown. “She’s a human Healer. And she’s, like, fifty.”

Steve shrugged, like he didn’t think her age had anything to do with her attractiveness. 

Jonathan rolled his eyes and shook his head. There was a sudden lance of burning pain running down his back. Crying out, Jonathan grabbed the back of his sweatshirt and pulled the whole thing off, along with the t-shirt underneath. 

“What?” Steve asked him as Jonathan stood up, shaking to make sure the speck of silver was gone. “Oh, dude. You’ve got a gnarly burn.”

“Yeah, I could tell,” Jonathan said, confused by the way Steve was looking at him. “There must have been a piece of silver in my clothes. Can you tell where it went?”

Steve sniffed a few times before picking up Jonathan’s sweatshirt and shaking it gently. A fleck of silver fell to the floor. Steve moved his bare feet away from it. 

“My goodness,” said Claudia Henderson as she approached with her medical bag slung over one shoulder. “You boys got yourselves into a bit of trouble, didn’t you?”

Jonathan and Steve both nodded. Jonathan took his seat, while Claudia reached down and picked up the piece of silver, making a tsk noise. “Those silly bastards, shooting at children with poisonous bullets!” She took a vial out of her medical bag and dropped the chunk of silver into it, twisting the cap on. Then she smiled at Jonathan and said, "Let me just wash my hands. Be right back!"

A moment later, while Jonathan was trying to hear what Nancy's mom and the other pack leaders were talking about, Steve said, "My uncle was shot with a silver bullet a couple years ago."

"Damn," Jonathan muttered, noting the grief on his face. "I take it he didn't survive?"

"He lasted a week before it finally killed him," Steve said, leaning forward and looking down at his hands clasped in front of him. "The screams were…" He gave Jonathan a sad smile. "Well, it sucked."

"Shit." Jonathan nudged Steve's arm with his. "Sorry."

Nodding, Steve said, "Thanks."

Nancy came into the kitchen just as Claudia returned from washing her hands. "Why do you have your shirt off?" Nancy asked Jonathan.

Jonathan turned his back toward both of them, pointing at it.

Claudia made a sympathetic noise. “Dear, oh, dear.” She pulled on a pair of gloves. “We’re going to have to clean out these wounds first. Either of you allergic to moonshine?”

Jonathan shook his head, and Steve said, “No.”

Taking a bottle and a few packs of gauze out of her bag, she said, “This is gonna sting like the dickens, so prepare yourself.” Pointing to Steve she said, “Let’s start with you. Just the one wound, right?”

Steve nodded and put his foot up onto another chair when Claudia directed him to. She wet some gauze with the moonshine and dabbed at Steve’s ankle with it. He took a sharp breath and grabbed Jonathan’s hand, squeezing it as he gave a low groan. “Damn, Claudia,” he muttered, “what did I ever do to you?”

Jonathan shook his head, but he let Steve keep squeezing his hand. Looking up at Nancy, he saw she had a sympathetic furrow in her brow. 

Claudia murmured, “Oh, I know, I know, sweetie. It’s almost done.”

Then there was a sharp pain in his hand and Jonathan gasped. “Claws, Steve! Claws! Ow!”

“Fuck, sorry!” he said, retracting them, even as a growl escaped his throat. 

“None of that,” Claudia chided. “Do I need to get some of the other wolves to come hold you down, or can you stay still?”

Shaking his head, Steve said, “I’m good. I’m good. Keep going.”

Thinking he should probably do something to distract Steve, Jonathan said, “Hey, remember that flip Nancy did over the trap?”

Steve gave him a confused, side-long look before saying, “Uh-huh.”

Smiling at him, Jonathan said, “We _have_ practiced that. A bunch.”

Steve laughed, a delighted smile springing onto his face. He looked up at Nancy and asked, “Really?”

Nancy shrugged. “More fun than sparring all the time. And it came in handy.” She smiled at Jonathan and said, “You should see when we switch places. How high up did you reach last time we tried?”

“Twenty feet, I think,” Jonathan told her. 

Steve’s smile got wider.

“There we go, Steve,” Claudia said. “All cleaned out. I’m going to medicate and wrap this wound, but you need to change the gauze every hour, okay?” 

Raising his eyebrows, Steve asked, “Seriously?”

She nodded. “Otherwise you’re going to heal _through_ the gauze, and that’s never pretty.”

Wincing, Steve said, “Jesus, yeah. Okay.”

Jonathan took his hand out of Steve's before asking Nancy, "Have we heard from my mom yet?"

Nancy shook her head. "The Chief is still missing, too. It figured they'd do this when the heads of all the most powerful packs are all out of town."

Furrowing his brow, Jonathan asked, "How did they kn--OW!" A searing burning pain shot up Jonathan's back.

"Sorry, honey," Claudia said, dabbing more of the moonshine onto his burns.

Putting herself in Jonthan's line of sight, Nancy asked, "What, Jonathan? What were you going to say?"

It was Steve who answered for him. "How did the Hunters know? To hit us now? This weekend?"

Jonathan nodded, clutching onto Nancy's hand as Claudia cleaned out his wound. He clenched his jaw and groaned, and somehow found Steve's hand in his free one, holding tight.

"I don't know," Nancy said, looking over at Steve. "How many people knew the gathering was this weekend?"

"The leaders of all the packs," Steve told her. "Even the ones who didn't go, like your mom. A few of the sorcerers, like Mr. Clarke. Me and my mom, obviously, but we weren't even told where the gathering was supposed to take place."

"I’ll give your back a rest, get this one on your face real quick. Keep your eyes closed tight," Claudia said, before starting in.

It was all Jonathan could do to hold still, even when Nancy asked, "If the Hunters got through the circle around the town, how much longer can we rely on the circle around this house?"

Suddenly there was a large commotion near the front of the house. "What is it?" Jonathan asked, feeling the way Claudia left him. "Can I open my eyes?"

"Yes, yes, Jonathan," Nancy told him, before pulling him by the hand, Steve following on his other side. "Oh, shit! Get out of the way!"

By the time Jonathan got his eyes open and got reoriented, he saw several of the local werewolves carrying Chief Hopper into the kitchen, setting him down on the table. His head hung limply, and the scent of fresh blood and silver was overpowering. 

"Oh, fuck," Steve whispered, as Claudia rushed over to the chief. 

"Someone hand me my bag!" Claudia cried. "I need forceps, and the rest of that moonshine!" 

"I've got more in the basement," Karen said, brushing past the others as she went to the basement door.

Looking around the room, Jonathan had a terrible feeling about whatever had happened to his mother. He twisted his hands away from Steve and Nancy, leaving the room and heading for the front door. Nancy followed after him, calling out, "Jonathan! No, it's not safe!"

Jonathan managed to outpace her well enough to get the front door open. One step out the door, he stopped short. There was a figure passing through the edge of the circle around the house. She smelled strongly of blood, and it was only after she came a few more steps closer that Jonathan recognized her.

"Mom!" 

She was carrying something, and as Jonathan ran out to meet her, he realized it was a person. A girl. 

"Is she…?" Jonathan tried to ask, marveling at the pure _volume_ of blood his mother was covered in. "Are you…?"

"Take her," Joyce said, sagging as Jonathan took the load from her arms. "She's got iron poisoning."

" _Iron_ poisoning?" Jonathan asked, bringing the girl into the house. Nancy helped Jonathan over the threshold, and Steve passed them, heading back to help Joyce, who was now limping. Calling over his shoulder, Jonathan asked his mom, "How do you get iron poisoning?"

"Oh, shit," Steve said from behind Jonathan. "She's fae?"

"Yeah," Joyce said, still limping, but following as Jonathan brought the girl into the kitchen. He noticed Will watching them, trying to get close to Joyce before she hugged him and then waved him off.

Looking over at them, Claudia said, "Oh, crud. I don't have enough hands!"

"It's okay," Joyce told her, kneeling down as Jonathan put the girl on the floor. She had short hair, a gauzy pink dress, a blue jacket, and a line of bruised skin around her neck. "I know what to do." Looking up, Joyce said, "Nancy. Get me a pitcher of water."

As Nancy was doing that, Jonathan asked his mother, "Are you hurt anywhere?"

She shook her head, allowing Will to come give her another hug. "Sorry. This is all… Not mine."

"Sick," Steve muttered, and Jonathan could tell he meant it in an impressed sort of way. Then he asked, "How'd you avoid all the silver bullets?"

Wincing, Joyce looked at Steve for a second before turning to Jonathan and touching his face. "Is that what happened to you, baby?"

Jonathan nodded, knowing she didn't feel disappointed in him, but feeling guilty about getting hurt just the same.

Gesturing over to the Chief, Joyce said, "We didn't avoid all of them. Unfortunately."

Nancy came back with the pitcher of water. Joyce took it and placed it on the floor between her and the girl. She put her hand over the water, said a few words that Jonathan didn't understand, and then started slowly pouring the water over the girl, starting with the bruises around her neck, and moving onto the ones Jonathan hadn't even noticed around her wrists. Joyce waved Will closer, having him help her turn the girl's wrists so they could get the water poured onto all the bruises.

At his shoulder, Nancy said, "We have to finish cleaning out your wounds, or they'll never heal."

Not looking forward to the pain, Jonathan looked over at where Claudia was frantically pulling silver out of the wound in Hopper's shoulder, Karen Wheeler and Benny Hammond helping her. "We should save the moonshine for him." 

"The little bit we need for you isn't going to make a difference for him," Nancy insisted, brushing her thumb across the uninjured left side of his face. 

Because he could never say no to her, Jonathan nodded. Nodding back, Nancy got up, grabbing a new packet of gauze and pouring some of the moonshine into a cup. While she was doing that, Steve sat down in front of Jonathan.

"This is gonna suck," Steve said, offering Jonathan his right hand.

With a careful nod, Jonathan grabbed Steve's hand in his, taking deep breaths to prepare himself for the pain. Nancy kneeled behind him, saying, "Okay, I can see what got cleaned on your face, because it's already healing. Your back, on the other hand... Hold still for me. Okay, Jonathan?"

Jonathan nodded, taking another deep breath and letting it out slowly. When the first flare of searing pain coursed through him, Jonathan closed his eyes and squeezed Steve's hand. 

Moving closer, Steve pressed his forehead to Jonathan's and asked him, "Want me to distract you from it?"

Biting back on a groan, Jonathan nodded his head. 

"What's a werewolf's favorite day of the week?" he asked, and it took Jonathan a moment to realize it was the set-up for a joke.

Frowning, Jonathan shook his head, "What?"

"Moonday."

The pain on his back hurt _so much_ and the joke was _so bad_ , that Jonathan couldn't help but laugh. 

"Why are werewolves better than vampires?"

Jonathan hissed at a new lance of pain, but shook his head. "Don't know."

Grinning, Steve said, "Werewolves don't have a problem with steaks. In fact, we're kind of fond of them."

"God, you're such an idiot," said Nancy at Jonathan's back, but he heard the humor in her voice. 

At another wave of pain, Jonathan grabbed the shoulder of Steve's sweatshirt with his free hand. Steve put his free hand on the back of Jonathan's neck, holding him still. "How do you stop a werewolf attacking you?"

Panting with the pain, Jonathan felt tears stinging the corners of his eyes.

"Throw a stick and shout, 'Fetch!'"

The noise that came out of Jonathan's mouth after that might have just as easily been a sob as a laugh. Steve laughed with him, but it was a pained laugh as well, and Jonathan made sure he hadn't accidentally let his claws slip out. He hadn't. Steve was just being sympathetic.

What a departure from the aloof, better-than-thou attitude he gave off at school. 

"That's it," Nancy said. "That's it for your back." 

Jonathan pulled away from Steve, giving him a nod of thanks. Steve nodded back, but he didn't let go of Jonathan's hand. "Your face, still."

"Shit," Jonathan said, looking up at Nancy. "How much is left?"

"Not much," she assured him, dipping a new piece of gauze into the moonshine in her cup. "Close your eyes."

Jonathan sighed, but he did as Nancy asked. "Tell me another joke."

"Shit, okay," Steve said. "I've got one more." 

Nancy dabbed at the burn on Jonathan's cheek with the moonshine, and it wasn't as bad as it had been on his back, the wound likely shallower, but it was still bad.

"Where do werewolves hate shopping?"

"I don't know. Where?" Jonathan asked him.

"The flea market."

Jonathan curled his lip in disgust.

"What?" Steve asked him, squeezing his hand again. "Nothing? Come on, don't tell me you never had fleas."

Furrowing his brow, Jonathan asked, "You've had _fleas_?"

"That was another joke for you," Steve said as Nancy pulled back. "A freebie."

"Okay, I'm all done with that," Nancy said. "You can open your eyes."

This time, when Jonathan opened his eyes, Steve was grinning. Jonathan gave an amused scoff and looked away. Beside him, Joyce was pouring the last of the water onto the girl. Will took a stack of towels from Dustin, and started laying them down on the floor, sopping up the poured water.

"Is she really fae?" Jonathan asked.

With a nod, Joyce said, "The Hunters had her poisoned and half-dead. They were making her do magic for them."

"Is that how they got inside the circle?" Nancy asked.

Joyce nodded again.

Unable to stand the question still lingering in his mind, Jonathan asked, "And all the blood? Where did that come from?"

"I was with Hopper and a few of the others," Joyce said, gesturing over to him. Things over at the table looked a little less frantic, but maybe that was Jonathan seeing what he wanted to see. "We were trying to get back here when we ran across the group keeping her captive. Well, we _knew_ we had to get her away from those people." Looking down at her appearance, Joyce said, "I might have gone a little feral after they shot Hop. And, well… The Hunters know the punishment for breaching the circle.”

"A _little_ feral?" Jonathan asked, raising his eyebrows at her.

Before Joyce could say anything else, the girl beside her coughed and woke up. 

"Shh, it's okay," Joyce said to her, putting her hands on the fae girl and helping her sit up. "We're friends." 

"What's your name?" Will asked her, putting a dry towel around her shoulders.

Her voice soft and slow, like it took effort to remember the name, she said, "Eleanora Caoimhe, daughter of Toiréasa of the Harvest."

Mike kneeled down next to Will, smiling at the girl and saying, "My name is Mike, which is short for Michael. This is Will, short for William. Maybe we could call you El? Short for… what you said?"

The girl gave a slight smile and nodded.

A question occurred to Jonathan, and while Nancy was covering his back in bandages, he asked the room at large, "How many more Hunters are out there?"

"I got three," Nancy told the others. "And I saw at least two more."

"There were three in the group we…" Joyce said, looking over at the Chief. "Well, they're all dead." Then she looked back at El. "Do you know how many Hunters you were traveling with?"

El shook her head.

Joyce looked over at Karen, saying, "We might have to all hunker down here for the night. At least until the other pack leaders get back and we can come to a consensus on what to do. The adults can take shifts keeping watch."

"Jonathan and I call my old room," Nancy said all of a sudden, like she was afraid someone else was going to fight her for it.

Karen nodded, then said, "Joyce, you and the girl can stay in Mike's room. Mike and the three boys can all stay in the basement. Claudia, Benny, you'll probably want the couches in the living room, so you can be close to…" She looked down at Chief Hopper, with a sorrowful look. "Well, he might need some care in the night."

Looking around at everyone, Steve asked, "So, where should I…?"

"Hmm, there's not enough room in the basement for all of you." Karen sighed, and then said, "Nancy, I think I'm going to have to put you in Holly's room." Before Nancy could open her mouth to complain, Karen said, "I know you're mated, but I think it would be most appropriate for the two boys to share your room. Just for tonight, when the house is so full."

Nancy made a face, but she backed down, especially when Joyce nodded her agreement with Karen's plan.

Jonathan looked over at Steve, not really sure about spending the night in the same room as him. So far, tonight, he'd been acting pretty decent. More like a pack member than the virtual stranger he was. It was probably going to be fine.

Except, when everyone started going their different ways and he and Steve got up to the room, Nancy's bed was kind of small for the two of them. Grinning at Jonathan, Steve said, "I'm injured, so I should get the bed."

"I'm injured _worse_ ," Jonathan argued. "So, I should get the bed!"

"Oh, my god," Nancy said as she came into the room, brushing past Jonathan and opening up her dresser drawers. Their room at Jonathan's house didn't have a whole lot of storage space, so Nancy still had a lot of clothes stored here. She pulled a pair of pajamas out of the dresser, which suddenly reminded Jonathan that he didn't have anything to sleep in, besides his underwear. His shirt might still have silver dust on it, and who knew what was on his pants after all the running around they'd done that night?

"Nance? Does your dad maybe have some extra sweats or something?" 

She shrugged. "I'll ask."

While she was gone, Steve looked around, saying, “Wow. Nancy Wheeler’s childhood bedroom.”

"Don't," Jonathan warned him. "How would you like me talking about your mate like that?"

Looking out the window, Steve said, "Dunno. Don't have one."

Jonathan thought Steve sounded regretful about that, so he left it alone. 

Turning away from the window, Steve said, "Hey, you're right. You're more injured, you should take the bed. I'll just shift and sleep on the floor."

Frowning, Jonathan asked him, "You can sleep while shifted?"

"Yeah," Steve said with a shrug. "Can't you?"

Jonathan shook his head. "I always shift back as soon as I fall asleep."

"Huh," Steve said, sitting down on the seat by the window. "I always thought Tommy was being stupid when he said he couldn't do it."

At the mention of Steve's packmate, Jonathan turned away. He sat on the bed, trying not to remember every shitty thing Tommy Hagan and his mate, Carol Perkins, had ever said to Jonathan, at school or otherwise. Hawkins was small, and the werewolf community was even smaller. Besides having to see them in school, Jonathan had to see Steve's packmates at the yearly all-packs meeting too. 

"Yeah, I get it," Steve said from the other side of the room. Jonathan turned a little, not quite to face him, but not putting his back to Steve either. "Tommy's an asshole. If he wasn't family, I wouldn't hang out with him either." Steve scoffed. "He was supposed to go running with me tonight, but he didn't show up. I almost died because I was out there alone." Shaking his head, he added, "It was stupid, going by myself."

"How were you supposed to know there'd be Hunters inside the circle?" Jonathan asked. "It hasn't happened in, what, ten years? Eleven?"

Nodding, Steve said, "I remember that." Steve scratched at the stubble on the side of his face. "I mean, our parents prepare us for when we have to leave Hawkins, but we don't really think about having to do that stuff every day."

"No, we don't," Jonathan admitted, looking up as he heard footsteps approaching. Nancy came back into the room, a pair of blue pajama pants in her hands.

She handed them to Jonathan, pressing a kiss to his cheek. Then she gave him a look that said she was planning some mischief, but she left again without explaining. She just said, "Goodnight," and disappeared.

"Anyway," Steve said. "Yeah, we should probably try to get some sleep. You wanna turn around, so I don't have to worry about taking my pants off _after_ I shift?"

Chuckling at the mental image (because who of them hadn't been there?), Jonathan turned around and changed into the pajama pants Nancy had brought him. He stayed turned away until Steve gave a soft woof from behind him. 

Jonathan turned, and realized that if he'd ever seen Steve shifted before, he didn't remember it. His coloring was more toward the brown and golden end of the wolf spectrum, and he was _big_. He was probably almost as big as the Chief when he was shifted. Trying to hide his surprise, Jonathan got in the bed and reached for the light. "Ready?"

Steve put his chin on the other side of the bed, licked his lips, and huffed again before raising his brows at Jonathan in an obvious question.

"You want to sleep in the bed too?"

Ears perking up, Steve smiled.

Jonathan rolled his eyes. "Fine, but you're staying over the covers, alright?"

Steve nodded and then jumped up onto the bed. It groaned a little under his weight, but after he turned around once and settled down, he took up less of the bed than Jonathan had expected. So, Jonathan turned off the light and settled down. 

He was almost asleep when he realized his hand was buried in the fur at the back of Steve's neck, scratching gently. That was something he'd do with a pack member, not with Steve Harrington! He pulled his hand away, whispering, "Sorry."

Steve gave a huff and tilted his head back, nosing at Jonathan's hand until he chuckled and capitulated. "Fine. But I'm telling everyone at school you like to be pet. Like a dog."

Steve woofed a soft laugh, but he let Jonathan scratch his fingers through the fur on his head. He sighed and so did Jonathan, closing his eyes.

By the time the bedroom door opened, Jonathan was almost asleep, and Steve was definitely asleep. Nancy slipped into bed behind Jonathan, careful of the bandages on his back. Jonathan shifted closer to Steve to give Nancy more room. Now that his mate was safe here, in the bed with him, Jonathan felt like he could finally let himself fall all the way asleep. And if his face was kind of in Steve's fur, breathing in the scent of him too, well, that was just comfort on what turned out to be a really stressful night.

**Author's Note:**

> Thanks for reading! I'd love to hear what you thought of the fic in a comment below! You can also find me on [tumblr](https://pterawaters.tumblr.com/) or [pillowfort](https://www.pillowfort.social/pterawaters) or in my [stoncy discord server](https://discord.gg/ShMhY8z) (where we also have a werewolf AU RP game that could use some more players).


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